1. Mahalakshmi Sivasankar Assistant Professor Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Ph.D. (2005) Northwestern University., CCC-SLP oice AB

2. Current Research Areas Laryngeal Hydration Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Vocal Fold Vibration Vocal Fold Defense to Environmental Perturbations Vocal Fatigue and Vocal Endurance Voice Disorders and Voice Therapy

3. Methodologies In Vivo Human Subjects Aerodynamic measures Acoustic measures In Vitro Ovine and Porcine Vocal Fold Epithelia Morphology Electrophysiology

4. Recent Results Human Subjects in vivo   Superficial dehydration challenges reduce the ease of voice production.   Dehydration challenges have greater effects in individuals at increased risk for chronic voice disorders. Vocal Fold Epithelia in vitro   Vocal fold epithelia detect ionic and osmotic perturbations on luminal surface   Vocal fold epithelia compensate for surface perturbations   Vocal fold epithelia provide an active defensive barrier

5. Future Directions In vivo   Physiological mechanisms underlying vocal fold response to surface perturbations.   Clinical screening tool to identify individuals at risk for voice disorders. In vitro   Regulation of vocal fold surface fluid composition using cultured vocal fold epithelia.   Contribution of extracellular matrix to vocal fold defense   Biomaterials